On September 27, 2014, during Divine Liturgy on the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Archbishop Ambrose of Peterhof - rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy - ordained theology student Alexander Yu to the diakonate in the Academy's church of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. At the beginning of the liturgy, the archbishop tonsured Yuy as a reader, and then elevated him to sub-deacon. Also tonsured as readers were baccalaureate graduates Anthony Pronskih and Alexis Chernikov.
During the Divine Liturgy, His Eminence Archbishop Ambrose was joined in prayer by: Archimandrite Sophronius (Smuk); priest Matti Wallgren, a cleric of the Finnish Orthodox Church; monk Gennadiy (Polyakov); priests: Andrew Parafenyuk, Alexander Kuznetsov and Gleb Sanyuk; monk Athanasius (Bukin); Protodeacon Kirill Zhuravlev and Deacon Herman Ranne.
Hieromonk Matthew (Sharoff) conducted the men's choir while the mixed choir was led by nun Xenia (Kanshin).
Graduate student Michael Smirnov gave the sermon after the reading of the Gospel.
The augmented litany included petitions for the Christians suffering from persecution in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and worldwide; for the successful reconstruction of the church of the Twelve Apostles, and for the restoration of the Academy's buildings. After the litany, Archbishop Ambrose said a prayer for those who are suffering in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
After the Eucharistic canon, Archbishop Ambrose ordained sub-deacon Alexander Yu a deacon. After the communion of the clergy in the altar, the bishop congratulated the newly ordained deacon Alexander with his elevation to the clergy and gave his episcopal blessing and advice, after which he presented him with a liturgical gospel, missal and a set of diaconal vestments .
At the end of the Divine Liturgy and after venerating the Holy Cross, Archbishop Ambrose addressed the clergy and attending faithful with a greeting on the occasion of the great feast and a pastoral word.
The Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Twelve Apostles was celebrated by visiting Bishop Athanasius (Jevtic), together with hieromonks Bartholomew (Magnitsky) and Vitali (Morozov), and hierodeacons Theodosious (Zhelnovachev) and Vladimir (Palibrka).
The women's choir of the Theological Academy sang during the Liturgy at the Church of the Twelve Apostles, conducted by Lidia Maslova.